Presents
by mygyps17
Summary: Presents are the only thing that's on Jo'an's mind, but everybody keeps taking too long to do other stuff first.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Smallville, or the characters. Well, I sorta own Jo'an, but that's it.

~~{(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)}~~

Jo'an Lane Kent sighs deeply while wiggling her foot impatiently. She has a _serious_ frown on her face, and her arms are crossed over her chest because she is _not_ happy.

Everybody's either sitting down, like she is, or standing up around the dining room table. They can't eat yet. Everyone has to talk about what they're thankful for, and about what Christmas means to them first.

It's so _boring! _And they _just _did this! Right on thanksgiving! Only thanksgiving wasn't as bad as today. On thanksgiving, she wasn't waiting to open her Christmas presents.

She gives another deep sigh. Her daddy's directly across from her, on the other side of the table, and he's smiling as he tells everyone that he's thankful for his mom, and his new father, and his family, and his friends, who have become his family, and the food, and the holiday, and everyone's health, and the sun…

He's thankful for too many things Jo'an decides before turning a little in her seat to look behind herself.

If she had x-ray vision like her daddy, she'd be able to look through the wall, and through the wrappings, and see her presents. But she can't. Not even when she scrunches her face up, concentrating as hard as she can.

That's what her Daddy always says. He always says, "Just concentrate honey, you'll get it soon."

But she never got it; and she wishes she had it now more than ever.

"Jo'an, it's your turn honey. What are you thankful for; and what does Christmas mean to you?" she hears her daddy ask her.

"Presents," Jo'an answers simply as she turns around quickly, giving her daddy her full attention. Presents are the one thing on her mind; they're what she's thankful for; and they're what Christmas means to her. It's just one word; but it sums up everything nicely. It's the perfect answer; and she's a little proud of herself for it. But then everyone starts laughing at her. _Everybody._ All of her aunts and uncles, even Bobo; they all just laugh. But there's nothing funny about this to Jo'an. This is torture; pure torture.

There are literally over a hundred Christmas presents under the tree. In fact, they're not all under the tree; because they can't fit. There are too many. They're all over the living room; on the floor, on the couches. There are even a couple sitting on top of the television. And out of all those presents, sixty two of them belong to her. She counted all the ones that have her name on them at least a dozen times.

So the fact that she has to wait until after breakfast to open her presents, and no one's allowed to even _start_ eating breakfast until everyone's had a turn to talk, and there are _so_ many people here, is seriously not making her a happy camper.

"Junior, you can do better than that," her mother chastises lightly beside her.

"But Mommy," Jo'an whines. "This is taking too long."

"And it's gonna take even longer since we're all wasting time waiting for you to answer your daddy seriously young lady. All of your aunts and uncles didn't come here to see a grouchy Lane, so turn that little Kent pout into a charming Lane smile and work some magic," Lois reprimands while trying to hold in her laughter. She can't really blame her child's behavior on her husband's genes. That was all Lane right there.

"She got it backwards, shouldn't it have been, "change the Lane pout into a charming Kent smile?"" Oliver whispers to Chloe; but everyone hears it; and everyone laughs…because it's true.

"Hey, I have plenty of charm," Lois starts to defend herself. And to Jo'an's dismay, she doesn't stop there. She goes on and on; arguing with her uncle about Kent Charm and Lane Charm; wasting even _more_ time.

Jo'an sighs…_again_. Her Mother's right. She wasted a lot of time by giving such a short answer. Now, she has to start all over and give a long answer like her grownups.

She gets out of her chair and clears her throat, vying for everyone's attention; but they're too busy watching her mommy, Uncle Ollie, and Aunt Chloe argue back and forth to notice her; andbesides, standing up didn't really make her any taller from when she was sitting down. She's still not much taller than the table.

She turns around and climbs back into the chair; but this time she stands up in her seat.

Everyone turns, giving her their full attention. It's exactly what she was aiming for.

She groans a little when her mother's hand shoots out automatically and grabs a hold of her leg to steady her.

When's her mommy going to realize that she's not going to fall?

"I'm thankful because all of my aunts, and all of my uncles, are here at my Grandma and Grandpa's house, and because you all brought me presents," Jo'an starts off loudly so that everyone can hear her. "And what Christmas means to me is that all of my aunts, and all of my uncles came here to give me presents; and I love all of you very, very, much for giving me presents," she concludes with the best Lane, Kent, or whichever one they want to call it, smile she can muster up.

"And what about the people who don't have a present for you?" Bart Allen cuts in with a huge grin. "Will you still love them?"

Jo'an was about to sit down. She was done talking. It was someone else's turn to talk so that they could hurry up and get all of this boring stuff out of the way. Then she could get to the good stuff; presents.

But she couldn't sit down just yet. She had to answer Bobo's question first. It's a _very_ important question as it's about presents, and the dreadful possibility of her not getting one.

"Bobo, I'll always love you forever and for always; but if you didn't get me a present, I'm going to love you this much lesser," she explains, holding her thumb and forefinger a little less than an inch apart to give him a visual measurement.

Everyone laughs. And she hears her mother chuckle out a "that's my girl."

That's when she falls out of her chair.

It never happens. She never falls; but right after Lois said "that's my girl," she was going to hop into her mother's lap.

She does it all the time; well, she _used_ to do it all the time. Now she can't do it because there's a baby in her mommy's tummy.

She doesn't know why she keeps forgetting. Her mommy's tummy is huge; and it's been huge for a _long_ time.

But she _did_ forget; and at the last second she tried to turn and sit back into her own seat instead. It just didn't work out that way. So, she fell.

She hears everyone gasp; and she hears her mother scream out a panicked "Jo'an!" but the only thought that's on her mind is how bad her Grandma's gonna kill her if she breaks her chair when she falls.

But she doesn't fall. Bart catches her. Or at least she thought it was Bart. It should've been Bart. He _is_ the fastest man alive.

"Daddy?" Jo'an gasps as she looks up at her father's concerned face.

"Are you okay honey?" Clark asks worriedly. The fall wouldn't have hurt her any; but the fact that she _did_ fall has him worried.

"How'd you beat Bobo?" Jo'an asks instead of answering her father's question. She's a little confused. Her daddy caught her. He caught her before Bobo did. But…Bobo runs faster than her daddy.

"He didn't beat me," Bart says defensively before Clark can answer his daughter.

He's standing right beside Clark; his arms outstretched and reaching for her; so it's more than obvious that he _had _indeed _tried_ to get to her before she fell. Her daddy just got there first.

"I just knew that you'd rather have your daddy catch you and I only came just in _case_ he didn't get to you in time"-

"Daddy beat you," Jo'an interrupts with a wide grin. He's not fooling her.

"He did not," Bart rebuttals with a slight twitch of his jaw. "I was just"-

"Just moving to the side," Lois cuts in, and Bart scrambles off to the side. Quickly.

Jo'an watches him go, and when he stops in between her Uncle Victor and her Uncle Bruce, she notices the way all of her aunts and uncles are staring at her. She's not surprised. She just fell for no reason whatsoever; but she ignores them because her mother's right beside her. Right where Bobo used to be, but much closer. And she looks so serious that Jo'an can't tell if she's in trouble or if she's in trouble. It's only out of one of those two.

She wraps an arm around her father's neck, shifting so that she's sitting on his hip. The other way he was holding her, as if she was lying down on her back, left her feeling quite defenseless under her mother's intense gaze.

"What just happened?" her mother asks, but she doesn't give Jo'an any time to answer before she begins to check her daughter all over, making Clark turn her this way and that way; and making him hold her up this way and set her down that way.

"_Moommmy_," Jo'an whines when her mother fusses over her for longer than necessary; but her mother ignores her.

She looks to her father; usually he takes her side and helps her with her mother, but not this time. He ignores her too; he's just as confused about her little mishap as everyone else is.

She sighs deeply as her grandma comes over and starts fussing too. Then everyone else comes over; and everyone else starts giving suggestions as to what may have happened to the little girl to cause her to lose her balance; and nearly everyone suggests taking her to see her Jor-el or Emil to figure out what's wrong with her.

Jo'an sighs again. She doesn't want to go see her Grandpa Jo or Doc. There's nothing wrong with her; and she keeps telling everyone that, but no one's listening.

At this point, she fears she'll never get to open up her presents.

"Why don't we just ask Jo'an what happened?"

Everyone turns to the woman who said that. Tess Mercer.

It's a good idea. The little girl might not know _why_ she fell; but if she could tell them exactly what had led up to the fall, or how she was feeling just before she fell, they'd be that much closer to figuring out what happened to her.

Clark moves Jo'an's plate over before sitting his daughter down on the table. Usually, Jo'an enjoys the spot light; but having everyone's eyes on her right now is making her nervous.

"Well, go on Junior tell us what happened," Lois orders.

Jo'an bites her lip. She not supposed to lie to her parents. She's not supposed to keep secrets from them either; but she _can't _tell her mommy that she almost jumped on her, that she almost hurt her and the baby…._again_.

She can still remember the way she'd hurt her mommy the last time she did it. Her mother didn't yell at her; and she didn't tell her daddy neither. She just got real quiet, bit her lip, and held onto her tummy. Jo'an could tell that her mother was trying to keep from crying and she was sorry; so very sorry. She told her mommy that a gazillion times; and her mother told her that it was okay and to just be careful "from now on." But she nearly did it _just_ now. She nearly hurt her mother again; _just _now. And if she tells everyone what she almost did, everyone will yell at her.

She already knows she was wrong, that's why she nearly fell in the first place. She really doesn't feel like being reminded of how she has to be careful around the new baby anymore; or about how the new baby is so precious and so special, or about how the new baby is already her Mommy's new favorite.

And maybe her mother didn't say that the new baby is her favorite out loud; but she doesn't have to. Her mommy's always going on and on about the new baby. Telling her how strong he is, and how hungry he always is, and how big he's gonna be when he's born, and how he just kicked her. What's so great about being kicked anyway? _And_ she keeps calling the baby "Junior." That's _her _name. She doesn't want to share it. She doesn't want to share her mommy either; or her daddy, or her grandma and grandpa, or her aunts, or her uncles-

"I'm waiting Jo'an," her mother raises a brow impatiently.

"I just fell," Jo'an answers with a light shrug. .

Lois narrows her eyes. Her daughter's not telling her everything. She's _hiding_ something; but before she can call the little girl out on it, Oliver chooses that moment to break up the gloomy mood. It's Christmas after all.

"Look what I got," he sings as he steps forward, holding a bit of mistletoe over Jo'an's head before diving in for the kiss.

She laughs, and not just because her uncle's rescuing her from her mother; but because mistletoe's fun. She's going to use the mistletoe to make-

"Bobo!" she yells as she hops down from the table.

Bart has just swiped the mistletoe from her uncle, and she knows _exactly_ who he's gonna try to kiss. Maybe her Aunt Chloe and Uncle Ollie won't be so mad because of the "mistletoe rules;" but she's gonna kill Bobo if he kisses her Aunt first.

He's hers.

"Bobo, get back here!" Jo'an yells as she chases him around the house.

No one besides Clark sees the chase. So no one besides Clark sees his daughter run after Bart, chase him into the living room, and tackle him down. But everyone hears the crash, and everyone rushes into the living room so they can see what happened, and make sure everything's alright.

Once everyone enters the living room as best as they can, they let out a collective "awww."

Jo'an is sitting on top of Bart's chest, pinning his arms to the side with her legs, and holding the mistletoe above his head. There isn't a single soul in the room who doesn't know that the young man _let_ the child catch him.

"Okay, you caught me," Bart groans pitifully. "Let's just get this over with."

Jo'an places a hand on each side of Bart's cheek, smushing them together until he makes "fish lips", before laying a big one on him.

Another bout of "awws" and some quick flashes of a camera lets Bart know that he'll literally never be able to forget this moment

"Really Mrs. H? Was that necessary?" Bart nearly whines.

Martha laughs at the young man with her granddaughter on his chest before setting her camera down. "You'll laugh about it in about five or so years from now," she chuckles.

Before Bart can grumble out an "I doubt it," Jo'an hops up off of Bart quickly with a serious frown on her face.

"Mercy, don't go!"

To everyone else, that statement must've seemed to come out of nowhere; but Clark heard Tess on the phone too. She just got called in for a meeting. With whom, he can't say. He only caught on to the last part of her conversation. Like everyone else, he'd been too busy watching the "BoJo" show.

"Trust me Lane, I _don't _want to go," Tess answers Jo'an just as she pockets her phone.

"But it's Christmas! I didn't even get to open your present!"

Tess smirks at the child before walking through the living room and picking up the small box she just finished wrapping. Usually, she had other people to do that kind of stuff; but she felt like doing it herself this time. This will be her sixth year spending Christmas with the Kents, and she's just now feeling comfortable with it, like she wasn't invited out of pity, and that she was really wanted; like she's part of the family.

There was one year that she didn't show up; last year in fact, and Clark literally dragged her out of her home and told her that she didn't have a choice. That she should at least give Jo'an her present in person.

When she got there, the little girl squealed with delight and sobbed out an "I thought you weren't coming," before giving her a very tight hug. Tess was at a loss for words. The little girl seemed to genuinely enjoy her presence, even though she didn't think she was so good with children.

"Here," Tess says before handing the small present over to Jo'an.

Jo'an looks up at her father. They were supposed to wait until after breakfast to open up the presents; but as soon as he nodded his head in approval, she tore the wrapping away quickly.

Tess smiles at the little girl. She'll remember this next time; and next time she won't waste nearly half an hour trying to wrap a box perfectly when the end result is it being shred into bits within two seconds flat.

"A key?" Jo'an questions when she takes her present out of the box. It looks kinda old, and it's much bigger than her parents' keys. "What does it go to?"

Tess stoops a little, placing both hands on her knees and putting herself at eye level with the child.

"It's a secret," she smiles, giving Jo'an a very light tap on the nose. "Merry Christmas Lane."

"Merry Christmas Mercy," Jo'an grins back excitedly before leaning in and kissing Tess quickly. She likes secrets, and Mercy has a lot of them. Cool ones. There's no doubt in her mind that whatever the key opened up will be the _best_ present ever.

"It better open up a garden, Tess," Lois growls.

Tess smiles back at Lois. She's the most overprotective parent she knows. Not that she's had many experiences with parents, and not that it's a bad thing, it just makes giving gifts to the little Lane kind of difficult. Especially because Tess refuses to get the girl something as boring as a doll. She learned that lesson the third year she had Christmas with the Kents.

"No, Lois, it does _not_ open up a secret garden; but it doesn't open up Pandora's Box either. Merry Christmas," she calls to everyone before leaving quickly, not wanting to chance Lane senior coming after her. She still has that meeting to get to after all.

"Let me see that," Lois tells Jo'an as soon as Tess shuts the door behind herself.

"Are you going to give it back?"

"Maybe."

"But it's _my _Christmas present," Jo'an says before hiding the key behind her back.

And when her mother gives her a look that says she could care less, Jo'an turns to her father. "Daddy?"

Clark sighs and walks over to stand beside Lois. He always hates doing this. He places a hand on his wife's back and begins to rub circles into it.

"Lois, I don't think "Mercy" will give our daughter anything that would harm her. Just let Jo'an keep the key for now, I'll talk to Tess about it later."

Jo'an beams up at her daddy; but Clark can't return the smile. He's in so much trouble with his wife now. It never pays to run interference between his girls.

"So, how about you open my gift now, huh Joey?"

"Yay!

Clark shoots his friend, A.C, a grateful look; but he doubts it's going to distract Lois.

"Here you go, Clent."

Clark doesn't have to look behind him to know who it is. There's only one person who's ever combined his first and last name together like that.

"Daddy, Uncle Dick's holding the mistletoe over your heads. You _have_ to kiss mommy, it's the rule.

Clark looks up a little; well, Dick isn't exactly the tallest guy on the planet so Clark really kinda just looks _over_. There_ is_ mistletoe in the younger man's hand.

He looks at Lois. There an "over my dead body" look on her face. He knew there would be. She thinks he lets Jo'an get away with murder, and he just undermined her authority in front of _everyone_. She's not going to be in the mood to kiss him for a good little while.

"Come on you two, kiss and make up. You know you have to. The mistletoe says so," Dick continues.

Clark appreciates the help Grayson is trying to offer; but he's only gonna make it worse.

"Clark, you have to kiss Lois; it's tradition."

Clark sighs. His cousin is a firm believer in tradition. Apparently, on Krypton traditions and customs were followed strictly to the T; but he wishes Kara would learn that here on earth, some traditions weren't a serious as others. That the mistletoe one is just for fun; and isn't mandatory.

"Kara," Clark starts to explain this to her, but then Chloe cuts him off.

"It _is_ the rule Lois," His best friend smirks.

"Traitor," Lois snaps back with a pout very similar to Jo'an's.

Chloe just shrugs.

"Kiss. Kiss. Kiss," Dick chants; and Lois has the sudden urge to choke him until his vocals stop working; but then Oliver joins in on the chanting, followed by Bart, then Chloe until eventually everyone's chanting "kiss".

"Fine!" Lois says when she's held off long enough to realize that they're not going to stop before grabbing her husband's shirt, yanking him to her and kissing him deeply.

Everyone's mouths fall open. The mistletoe doesn't care what kind of kiss is given underneath it; just as long as it is a kiss.

Lois Lane is pissed off at her husband. She could've given him a small meaningless peck, and it still would've counted.

"Alright everyone," Martha clears her throat and takes the mistletoe out of Dick's hand. "I know another couple who have some kissing and making up to do, come here Jo'an," she commands as she holds the mistletoe over Lois's head.

"You want me to kiss Mommy?" Jo'an frowns.

"Don't think that I haven't noticed the way you two can't seem to get along, young ladies," she says to both Lois and Jo'an. "I don't know what's been going on with you two lately; but I've noticed a slight rift between you two, and frankly it's quite disconcerting. You two need to mend this before it gets any worse, now come over here and give Mommy a kiss."

Jo'an frowns for two reasons. One; she doesn't know what disconcerting means. Two: she's not mad at her mommy like her grandma thinks she is. She just doesn't want to get in her way. Her daddy says she's just a little moody because of the baby; so, Jo'an has been trying to avoid her when she gets "moody;" which is a lot.

Lois frowns at her daughter's hesitation to come to her; but honestly, her feelings are hurt. Jo'an has never hesitated to kiss her before. Her child is very affectionate, overly so in fact; but she _has_ noticed that Jo'an has been pulling back a little lately. She didn't think much of it, just kinda chucked it up to the fact that her child is getting older. Little kids stop kissing people so much at a certain age, thinking that they've gotten too old for it.

But Jo'an apparently hasn't. She_ just_ watched her daughter giggle when Oliver swooped in and kissed her while she was sitting on the dining room table. She_ just_ watched her daughter tackle Bart and kiss him quite soundly. Yes, she realizes that those were all under the mistletoe kisses; but there wasn't any mistletoe around when Jo'an kissed Tess Mercer without the _slightest_ bit of hesitation.

Sensing Lois's hurt over Jo'an's hesitation, Clark begins to rub comforting circles into his wife's back again.

"Jo'an, honey, come here and give Mommy a kiss," Clark coaxes.

"She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to," Lois sighs a little.

"Wait! I do but…I just…Uncle Bruce will you hold my key for me?" Jo'an asks. She was going to ask her Uncle Ollie to do it at first; but he might give it to her Mommy if she asked him for it. Her Uncle Bruce wouldn't. He's very strict with rules and stuff; and her daddy already said she could keep it, so her uncle wouldn't give it to her mommy…no matter how bad she hurt him.

Lois gives a shaky laugh, relief pouring out of her in torrents. That's all Jo'an was worried about? That she would take her key?

"I'm not going to take your key Junior," Lois smiles invitingly.

"You promise?" Jo'an asks with narrowed eyes.

"Pinky swear," Lois answers seriously while holding her pinky out for Jo'an to take.

Jo'an approaches her mother then; slowly as she's still a little suspicious. First her mother had been so mad about the key, and now she's _okay_ with it? Just like that? Jo'an may be a Kent, but there's much more Lane in her.

She holds the key behind her back with one hand, and with the other, she links her pinky with her mother's.

Lois smiles as Jo'an's other hand, the hand with the key in it, relaxes and comes from around her back the very _second_ her pinky is linked with her daughter's. Pinky swearing is highly sacred to Jo'an. You break one of those and it's the highest form of blasphemy a person could reach.

"Uh, as cute as the pinky thing is, that's not kissing guys," Bart says.

He doesn't fool Jo'an in the least. He just wants to swipe the mistletoe so that he can have another chance at kissing her aunt again.

Lois ignores him, focusing on her daughter instead. She bends down as far as her pregnant belly will allow her and embraces her daughter tightly, before kissing her cheek. Jo'an's very careful not to squeeze her mother back, even though she really has the urge to.

"Come on Junior, you can do better than that," Lois whispers in her daughters ear.

Jo'an grins widely before giving her mother a gentle squeeze; but then that grin drops when her mother suddenly cries out in pain.

"I'm sorry!" Jo'an yells in alarm. "It was an accident."

But no one's listening to her. She didn't do anything wrong. Lois is about to have her baby.

Clark lifts his pregnant wife into his arms, tells his daughter to stay with her uncles and aunts, and then leaves before she can get out a single "but."

"Hey Joey," her uncle, A.C, calls once Clark is gone. "You wanna open this present or not?"

"I do," Jo'an starts off. "But Mommy…"

"Mommy's fine," Oliver tells his niece. "The same thing happened when your mommy was having you, and everything turned out just fine."

"Really?" Jo'an asks uncertainly.

"Really," almost all of her aunts and uncles chorus their agreements.

"Okay," she says after a few more "Mommy's gonna be just fines." If her mommy is fine, then it wouldn't hurt to open up a few more presents.

She reaches for A.C's present first, and tears it open.

It's a suit…a scuba diving suit…but it's too big for her. Way too big.

A.C. grins at Jo'an before explaining to her that it's for Bart, because she's always wanting "Bobo" to go with them when they have "underwater adventures."

"So then why didn't you just give it to Bobo?" Jo'an frowns.

A.C. drops his smile. He thought it was a good idea at the time.

"Hey, Bart, switch presents with Joey," he calls.

"But you got me a gift card to Joe's Place," Bart whines back.

He'd take food over scuba diving any day.

"I love Joe's place!" Jo'an grins excitedly.

"Too bad, you're not getting it," Bart tells her.

"But Uncle A.C. said so!"

"I don't care! It's mine!"

"Bobo!"

"No!"

"Aunt Chloe will kiss you if you do it," Jo'an offers.

"Okay," Bart relents immediately.

"Wait, no, not okay," Chloe reprimands her niece. "You can't just offer me up as a sacrifice Jo."

"But he's got mistletoe Aunt Chloe," Jo'an grins wickedly.

Chloe blinks and looks behind her. Bart is indeed holding mistletoe up over her head.

"It's tradition," Kara smiles, and Chloe instantly regrets siding with Kara when it was Lois and Clark's turn. Payback is definitely a bitch.

"Fine," Chloe relents before leaning in and kissing Bart.

She rolls her eyes at all of the whistling and laughing and grinning before telling her niece she was going to pawn her Christmas present for that.

Jo'an just grinned back. She knew her aunt wasn't serious.

Jo'an had about thirty two presents unwrapped by the time she heard her mother's first scream.

"Mommy!" she calls while getting to her feet; but her family told her again that her mother's fine. That she screamed a lot when she was having her too.

She tried to be understanding and go back to the presents; but they couldn't hear her mommy screaming the way she could. It was scary.

"Joey," Oliver calls his niece. "How about you open my present now? I was trying to save the best for last; but I think it will be okay for you to have it now. What do you think?"

"eh-hem," Her uncle Bruce clears his throat loudly. "And what makes you think _your_ gift will be the best?"

Everyone groans. _Everyone. _Bruce and Oliver have been having the _same_ rivalry since Jo'an was born.

"What makes you think _your _gift will be the best?"

"Well what did you get her?"

"What did _you_ get her?"

"A motorcycle," Bruce answers confidently.

"A motorcycle? You bought a six year old a motorcycle?" Oliver scoffs. "You really are an unfit uncle aren't you?"

"Bought? Who in their right mind would _buy_ a six year old a motorcycle?" Bruce balks.

Oliver frowns back at Bruce. He just said-

"I _built_ a motorcycle for _my_ niece. It's childproof and it's safe. What'd you get her? A pony?"

Oliver blinks back at him. What's wrong with a pony? Little girls always want a pony.

"Joey, you'd like a pony better than a motorcycle wouldn't you?" Oliver asks his niece; but what he's really asking is if the child likes him more than the other uncle.

But Jo'an doesn't answer. She's not there. How could she stay there and open presents when her Mommy was hurt?

By the time Jo'an gets to her mother, she's stopped screaming though; and there's someone else screaming. The baby. And her mommy is holding him, and smiling down at him.

"Junior?" Lois smiles when she sees the little girl peeking through the doorway.

Clark turns around and sighs a little before smiling at his daughter. He should have known she wouldn't stay put at the farm. She's too stubborn.

"Come here," Lois says when Jo'an doesn't move.

Jo'an inches forward slowly, aware that she's probably in trouble for sneaking off.

"Come sit by me," Lois pats the spot beside her in the hospital bed.

"There's no room," Jo'an says. The bed is really small.

"There's plenty of room," Clark says as helps his daughter up and carefully positions her so that she's tucked up against Lois's side.

Lois wraps an arm around her daughter and pulls her even closer to her side. Then she motions for Clark to help her with the baby.

Jo'an's eyes go wide when her mother puts the baby into her arms. He's so little. What if she drops him? What if she hurts him?

She looks up at her mother with a slightly panicked expression on her face; and Lois smiles back at her.

"What do you think of your brother, baby?"

Jo'an looks back down at the infant. He's sort of stopped crying. And he's sort of precious she guesses.

"He's an okay present," Jo'an concludes. "But I really wanted a pony."


End file.
